ANKARA – The US deputy secretary of state on Thursday lauded Turkey for its continued support to refugees. “We appreciate Turkey’s continued support to over 4 million refugees,” Wendy Sherman said on Twitter, describing her meeting with Sedat Önal, Turkey’s deputy foreign minister, in the capital Ankara as “productive.” The importance of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, as well as Afghanistan, Syria, and regional issues were also discussed in the meeting, Sherman added. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday’s discussions between the two sides focused on the “strategic nature” of ties between Ankara and Washington. In a tweet on Friday, the ministry said ÖnalRead More

Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai was sentenced to a further 14 months in prison on Friday for organising an unauthorised assembly on Oct. 1, 2019, during one of the city’s pro-democracy rallies that year. Judge Amanda Woodcock delivered the sentence in the District Court. This month, Lai – who is already serving a 14-month sentence for participating in similar demonstrations on Aug. 18 and Aug. 31, 2019 – and nine other activists pleaded guilty to organising an unauthorised assembly.

JAKARTA, MAY 28 – Several hundred Indonesians on Friday protested what they called American support for Israel outside the U.S. Embassy and the U.N. mission in Jakarta. Carrying giant Palestinian and Indonesian flags and signs that read “Indonesian worker solidarity for free Palestine,” the demonstrators marched from several mosques to a major street outside the embassy. The rally was organized by the Indonesian Muslim Workers Movement and several other groups. Authorities with loudspeakers warned the protesters to maintain social distancing. More than 2,300 police, many wearing hazmat suits, were deployed to secure the embassy, the nearby presidential palace and the United Nations mission. Indonesia, theRead More

BERLIN – Germany on Friday apologised for its role in slaughter of Herero and Nama tribespeople in Namibia more than a century ago and officially described the massacre as genocide for the first time, as it agreed to fund projects worth over a billion euros. German soldiers killed some 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama members in a 1904-1908 campaign after a revolt against land seizures by colonists in what historians and the United Nations have long called the first genocide of the 20th century. While Germany has previously acknowledged “moral responsibility” for the killings, it has avoided making an official apology for the massacresRead More